Tuscan Treks
My last newsletter covered the castle we stayed in, this issue will cover everything we did!
I’ll preface that this leg of our trip was largely planned by my father, Mark Broughton, who loves wine and is very ambitious in his planning, evidenced by back to back wine tasting and our crazy butcher experience.
Day 1 we started at the morning market in Panzano, a little town just up the road. They do a small farmers market on the weekend and we stopped for some goodies and an espresso before the sun got too intense.
Our first winery was La Fattoria di Vignamaggio, tucked between Greve and Panzano. It’s been making wine since 1404 and is one of the oldest working estates in Tuscany. It was built by the Gherardini family, family of Lisa Gherardini, aka the Mona Lisa. Their best bottle is even named after her.
Their property was also an organic farm, the whole estate was so pretty garden goals.
Then: the butcher.
All we were told was we were going to lunch at the local butcher shop. What my dad did not tell us was this was a 10 course ALL MEAT tasting menu, crammed in family-style long tables, with no AC. It was almost 100 degrees that day, and all of us felt super delulu at the end of it. They started with a first course of large scoops of raw tartare (they call it the sushi del Chianti) then more meats, then ribs, then steaks, then more. We tapped out well before the food did, I have never seen so much meat in my life.
The butcher Dario Cecchini runs Antica Macelleria Cecchini in Panzano, a shop his family has kept since 1780 and he's the eighth generation. The New York Times called him the best butcher in the world and he has been featured on Chef’s Table, and now people fly in from everywhere to eat here. My dad swears he met Dario years ago on a trip with friends, back before any of the fame. Dario did not remember my dad lol.
Keep in mind my sister is also vegetarian, she had the vegetarian menu which was just lots of small bowls of pickled vegetables. She was horrified by all the meat. Riley boy on the other hand enjoyed it and said he was protein maxxing.
Last stop of the day was Castello di Verrazzano. This was an real castle on a hill, with a driveway lined with cypress and a big iron gate at the end of it. There have been vineyards here since at least 1150, and the grounds sit on top of what were once Etruscan and Roman settlements. Back in the day the hilltop castles around here all fought with each other, and you can look across the way and see the rival castle on the other hill.
Their wine cellars hold one of the oldest bottle collections in the region, and they have saved the best vintages each year all the way back to 1924. Also the castle’s most famous son was Giovanni da Verrazzano, born here in 1485, was the explorer who first sailed into New York harbor and has a bridge is named after him.
Montalcino
Day two we drove south to Montalcino for Casanova di Neri in Brunello country. This was my favorite winery! It’s about an hour and a half away on very rough roads, but it was worth it. The winery was started in 1971 by Giovanni Neri and is still completely family-run. His son Giacomo took the reins and the next generation is all working for the winery. The family even still lives up above the main building. They have been named Wine of the Year for several bottles and are known for having “perfect” wine, which I agreed with as these were my favorite wines we tasted.
We got a private tour and they walked us through all of the production process, showing everything from the distilling and sorting process to the on site print shop where they printed all their own labels and marketing materials in house. As someone who loves the design details I really loved the in house printing and provided brochures.
Afterward we had lunch at Enoteca la Fortezza, tucked inside Montalcino’s old stone fortress. There was one more winery on the schedule after that, but honestly I could not keep up so skipping that one.
Day three was slower, which we needed. We spent it in Radda in Chianti, the town local to our villa. We did some shopping and had lovely lunch at La Bottega di Giovannino from a great local chef, topped off with a round of spritzes.
My favorite buy of the trip came from a little housewares shop in Radda, I found the Alessi sugar and creamer set I’ve been hunting for since last summer in Rome. I loved browsing the shelves of Bialetti moka pots and stainless kettles, and then in the corner of the store I stumbled upon the Alessi set and freaked out!
The next morning we poked around one more town, had a great final lunch next to an ancient monastery, and went back to enjoy our villa before packing up to head home. The lunch was my favorite because it was the first place I could find that had tequila, so I had three drinks. After lunch Em (rileys girlfriend who also had 3 drinks) and I got kicked out of the wine cellar tour for giggling, but we had a great final day.
Feeling so very grateful for this family time and summer vacation. Tuscany was HOT but I walked away with whole new knowledge of wine thanks to my dad and his crazy planning. Now we are home and back to real world, excited to kick off fall and get back into swing of things… thanks for tuning in as always <3
A balanced diet is a glass of wine in each hand!
